First of all, thank you for praying for mine and Melissa’s train ride home— all went well and we were both able to sleep on the train! Before we got on the train we went to a restaurant in that city and I got ice cream. So I’m eating and quite enjoying my vanilla with chocolate swirls ice cream when I feel a crunch. I look down and it looks like it is perhaps freezer burnt and then I thought Maybe it’s granola. Well, although the freezer burn part may have been correct, what I pulled out of my mouth wasn’t a frozen piece of ice cream, but a 1-inch insect leg (later to find out it was from a cockroach...you know how I feel about those wretched things)— ahhhh!! Needless to say, this was my one exception to waste food in India! On the train, we made friends with a girl around my age, Harshita! I sat on Harshita’s bed for about 6 hours total, chatting about anything and everything from her religion (Hinduism) to my relationship with the Lord to her arranged marriage coming up in Nov (which she legit wants me to fly back to India for :)) She asked me if, as protestants, we are under the pope and why we aren’t. I explained (with eagerness!!) that since Jesus paid the price for our sins, we have direct access to be forgiven by him and don’t need to go through a priest (although we have a lot of respect for the pope) and that Jesus WANTS to speak with every single person. It was awesome :)! We exchanged contact information and I am REALLY looking forward to continuing my relationship with Harshita, confident that the Lord put her in my path to plant truth in her life and expose her to Jesus! We arrived back in Dharwad at about 5:30am, totally exhausted. It is soo nice to be back at the children’s home...man I missed these sweet girls and hearing “Seester” (sister) or “Acka” (big sister) a million times a day!! To my surprise, I remembered the majority of their names (thank you Jesus haha).
There have been several visitors to the Children’s Home recently. A group of four Australians came and stayed in the guest house with me— a couple (Ravi and Merlyn), their 21 year old daughter (Roshni), and her British-Australian friend (Olivia) who is also 21! My time with them was unbelievably refreshing and SUCH a blessing and answer to prayer!! After talking with them for just a short amount of time, I found out that not only were these INCREDIBLE Jesus- lovers, but were also huge fans of Bethel Church, Hillsong, Bill Johnson, etc. Not only that, but these people were carrying the Holy Spirit like crazy and I was jazzed to be able to hang out and do ministry with them for a short time. From 7:30-8pm is usually prayer and singing time before dinner at 8, but we started prayer/worship time at 6:45 Wednesday night, due to the guests wanting to share! After Ravi and Merlyn shared a bit with the children, Roshni and Olivia went to the front and told the kids that they were going to play (from Roshni’s iPhone) and sing the song “Oceans” by Hillsong (as soon as I heard this I got suuuper excited because it’s one of my favorite songs!!). Roshni mouthed if I knew the song and when I said yes, she motioned for me to come up as well. So the three of us played the song and sang along with it, while we had all the children and staff just close their eyes and encounter the Lord while listening (we explained the song first). I then wrote the words to the bridge on the chalk board and Shobha translated and then had them repeat in English. And for about 5 minutes we sang the bridge on repeat, acapella. The bridge goes: “Spirit lead me where my trust is without borders. Let me walk upon the waters wherever you have called me. Take me deeper than my feet could ever wander, that my faith would be made stronger in the presence of my Savior”. It was soo beautiful :)...the younger girls just sang “la la la la”...precious! After, we said if anyone wanted prayer to stand up and we would pray for them. Well, about 25 people (mostly children) stood up, so Roshni, Olivia, Merlyn, Ravi and I began moving from child to child praying over them. Oh.my.word. THE HOLY SPIRIT SHOWED UP. The Lord began giving us words of knowledge for these children and we were able to proclaim promises and truths over them of how the Lord has created them and is shaping them. IT WAS AMAZING and sooooo fun :)))! I was soo pumped after...the Spirit’s presence was so thick and sweet in that place. Let me tell you what...this group of children is being raised up as Circuit Riders, leaders in the charge of the Holy Spirit movement. It was awesome to be a part of and I felt so unbelievably blessed and honored to be a vessel of the Lord’s sweet truth. The four of them left the next day (Thursday), which was a bummer, but we all felt so blessed and joyful, even as they left, and exchanged contact information, especially with plans to eventually go stay with them in Australia :)!
Then Friday we had a man from the States (OHIO specifically!!) came to visit at the house for several hours! That was fun to talk about his journey here and hear him process about this being his first time ever out of the States! I also had such a good time of teaching 6th grade Friday evening and got to work one on one with a sweet girl named Keerti...I was BLOWN AWAY by the progress she made in an hour. These kids are so hungry to learn— I LOVE IT!!!! Saturday I slept in a bit and got some much needed rest (complete with a dream that I was back at IWU and everything seemed normal until I found out it was 1955 instead of 2013 haha). Also, the YWAM group that’s here (from Korea) did a service tonight and prayed over everyone. Language just doesn’t matter in those situations...the impact is deeper and so much sweeter than the barrier!! There were also 2 guys here (father and son) from South Carolina staying in the guesthouse as well. The Father, Dan, teaches at the missions school, EI, in SC and he and his son spoke at the youth camp! It was soo nice to chat with them and spend time just hanging out a lot!
July 9-11 was Youth Camp in Belguam (about two hours away from Dharwad). The days leading up to up leaving were full of preparation, which for me and several older girls helping, meant making over 70 starts to friendship bracelets (for those of you who make those bracelets and are confused what “starts” would mean: we chose sets of three colors, looped them and tied them so we could just hand them to the kids instead of taking forever to decide on colors!) They brought a huge jug of purified water for us and with no choice, made me sleep on a bed with a mosquito net while the older girls from the children’s home in the room with me slept on floor mats with no nets. There’s something to be said for honoring your guests, but the culture here makes me superior to them without any choice from me. It’s actually really difficult because there are lots of things that you cannot challenge because it’s offensive to them. So it’s taking more discernment to know when I can push against them and try to be seen as the SAME as them. When I first arrived at the camp, I was coming out the bathroom and was pretty much blocked from going any further by a group of 7 Indian girls and women, just STARING at me. Shobha said, you can stare at her all you want, touch her, etc. I said “I feel the same as you!” Some of these people have literally never seen a white person face to face...I think it’s as shocking for them as their reaction is for me. It doesn’t matter if I do something right or wrong, there are constantly stares...makes me careful of what I do for sure haha! I also shared my testimony on one of the days (translated by Shobha)! I shared about how in the States a big struggle is fighting against the “American Dream” and material possessions. And I talked about how part of my testimony was gaining victory over my thoughts and how, when we walk with the Lord, we can claim HIS victory over our sins and can be set free from the prison of our sin (Philippians 4:8 and 2 Corinthians 10:3-5 were two that I used). They were all really attentive and I prayed over them at the end, declaring victory and freedom from sin and strongholds and binding satan’s schemes in the name of Jesus!! After the Gospel message one of the days, about 23 people came up to accept Christ and be prayed over (they are all from Hindu background)...it was AMAZING and emotional! One girl got overwhelmed with the Holy Spirit, blacked out and fell down! It was fantastic :)...she said she was so filled with the Lord’s peace.
I spoke at the Sunday morning service about the power of the tongue to either speak life or death, and how it’s ALWAYS doing one or the other, whether we mean it or not. I had 6th grade and up, which was easier to speak to, and it went super well! We had a prayer time at the end to invite the Lord to point out times when we’ve spoken death/curse over someone and I challenged them to go to that person and ask for forgiveness. I also got to talk to 20 of my family members the other day on the phone while they are at Kelley's Island....bittersweet to not be there, but SUCH a blessing to hear everyone's voices!!!
Please pray:
-pray that this food would nourish my body, settle and digest well. Breaking that junk in the name of Jesus!!
-For me to rely on the Lord for HIS plan for my journey, not my own plans and expectations.
-For joy to continue spilling out of me and that it would be such a blessing to everyone I’m around!
-The language barrier...still tough, especially now that the girls are more comfortable with me and talk more. Pray for the Spirit’s empowering to transcend that gap!
-Teaching: that the Lord would equip and empower me to teach these girls beyond what I could do alone (I’ll be teaching 5-7 grades for the rest of my time here...one hour in the morning and one in the evening).
-for the Lord to use me in every single way he desires while I’m here!! I want to be 100% available for what HE WANTS!!!!!!!!
Thank you all so much for your constant support...I love and miss every one of you! (and sorry this one is a novel haha)
Love from India,
Bethany
(Melissa, Harshita and I on the train)
(beautiful terrain of India from the train)
(typical Indian village...that's a Hindu temple, which they have in every one)
(Arun and I with three of the Australians: Merlyn, Olivia, and Roshni!)
(Roopa--from the Children's home, Olivia, Melissa, me, Roshni and Leha-- Melissa's cousin)
(Playing with a sweet little girl, Spoorti)
(play time with Spoorti and Ahsha...they're the youngest, 4 yrs old)
(Korean YWAM team praying over the kids!)
(worship and dancing--on left-- time at the youth camp)
(giving my testimony at the youth camp)
(about 23 young people accepting Christ for the first time....all from Hindu backgrounds.....praise the Lord!!!!)
straight up crying right now. this was all so beautiful.
ReplyDeletei miss you!